Parisians roll with ‘bike-freedom’
Posted: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 1:59 PM
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On Assignment
By Bruno Silvestre, NBC News Producer
PARIS – It's an invasion. They're everywhere. Wherever you look in Paris, you'll see them.
Bicycles. Dozens of them. And it's not just Lance Armstrong wannabees who are riding them. It's everyone, from the 15-year-old hurrying to get to school on time, to the 60-year-old pensioner leisurely crisscrossing a new Parisian neighborhood.
Like in most European cities, bicycles are not a new phenomenon in the French capital. After all, the first Bicycle Fair and the first bicycle race (81 miles between Paris and Rouen) took place here in 1869, 138 years ago.
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| Bruno Silvestre / NBC News |
| One of the many VELIB bike stations in downtown Paris. |
And since then, Paris has seen generations of cyclists proudly perched on their bikes, pedaling through its streets and boulevards. But since mid-July, a new self-service bicycle rental scheme called VELIB has turned the city of light into the city of bikes.
‘Bike-freedom’
VELIB – a mix between vélo (bike) and liberté (freedom) – was launched by the Paris authorities on July 15. The idea was to help combat traffic jams and pollution by providing a bike rental system that was efficient, reliable, easy to use, and cheap.
How it works is indeed quite simple. Parisians and tourists alike can take a bike from one of the 1,450 stations that have been created all over town; pedal to their destination and drop the bike at the nearest station once they have arrived. Organizers claim you’re never more than 300 yards away from a VELIB station.
All you need to do, if you plan to use VELIB all the time, is to sign up for a yearly pass, which is what more than 130,000 Parisians have done so far. And if you are a visitor, a simple credit card will do the trick and instantly give you a daily or weekly pass.
"Driving in Paris was becoming a real pain in the derriere, and I hate the metro," explained a man named Francis while he punched in his code number on a ticket machine to unlock a bike. "Now for 29 Euros ($42, the cost of an annual card), I can go wherever I want to go, whenever I want. Day or night. There’s no contest."
Paris isn’t the first city where such a service is offered. In France, Lyon started a similar bike rental service months earlier, and throughout Europe – Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Vienna and Barcelona are others cities which have also developed their own systems. But the introduction of the VELIB system is the first time a metropolis has devoted so much time, money and energy to promote the bike as a major tool of its transportation policy.
And by all accounts, it’s clearly working. Since it was introduced, around 7 million trips have been recorded and by the end of the year, there will more than 20,000 bikes available in the stations.
It is an impressive program, and Anne Hidalgo, the deputy mayor, said that is one of the reasons VELIB is so popular. "It had to be massive, said Hidalgo. "But even in our wildest dreams, we could never have imagined it would catch on and grow so rapidly."
Biker and drivers learn to co-exist
The other reasons are the minimal cost to use the service and the specific features of the French capital that make bike trips ideal.
When you pick up a bike, the first half hour is free. The second half hour will cost you one euro ($1.45) and the longer you keep the bike, the more expensive your journey becomes.
But Paris is not an incredibly large capital and a half-hour bike trip will take you pretty much anywhere in town. And except for the Montmartre neighborhood, the city is relatively flat. Even those who aren’t training for next year’s Tour de France can enjoy this unusual method of discovering the city.
Notorious Paris drivers were dismissive of the idea at first and saw VELIB as yet another fad from Bertrand Delanoe, the flamboyant Paris mayor. But after only a few weeks, they became almost overwhelmed by the sheer number of cyclists and had to gradually alter their driving manners. Transport authorities claim they have noticeably reduced their speed and are driving more carefully now for fear of hitting a cyclist.
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| Bruno Silvestre / NBC News |
| VELIB Bike riders share busy streets with cars in downtown Paris. |
Up until three weeks ago, the number of accidents caused by the bike surge had been minimal and fortunately most of them had been minor. But on Oct 18, VELIB suffered its first fatality. A truck crushed a 60-year-old woman on her VELIB bike while both tried to turn right at the same time.
Critics of the scheme say some of the cyclists are not without blame. Encouraged over the years by poorly enforced regulations, many saw a Parisian red light as merely a suggestion. Close encounters with cyclists riding on the pavements or against the traffic were not uncommon and for a long time authorities saw the bikers disregard for the rules of the road as deplorable, but for the most part harmless.
Not anymore. The police have been ordered to step in and today, anyone caught behaving dangerously is fined up to $130 on the spot. The VELIB team also claims the early bugs in the system have been identified and are being dealt with. They have hired 200 people to repair and maintain the fleet of bikes.
Remarkable success
And a visit to a VELIB station has now become a required stop whenever the Paris mayor welcomes visitors from abroad. Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley and New York City’s Michael Bloomberg have visited in recent weeks ago and were said to be "quite impressed."
But more than the Paris landscape, VELIB is also affecting the Parisians lifestyle and mentalities. Pro and anti-VELIB websites are blossoming and provide all kinds of advices on how to deal with the new phenomenon. How to look good on a bike? How to meet people on two-wheels? What is the latest bike etiquette, etc?
On the whole, most would say that VELIB has been a remarkable success, but the real test is approaching. Winter is around the corner and when the going will gets tough, will the tough keep pedaling?
